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Science Fictional Parody As a Postmodernist Trope in Douglas Adams’S Serial Novels the Hitchhiker’S Guide to the Galaxy

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Science Fictional Parody As a Postmodernist Trope in Douglas Adams’S Serial Novels the Hitchhiker’S Guide to the Galaxy SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY AS A POSTMODERNIST TROPE IN DOUGLAS ADAMS’S SERIAL NOVELS THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Pamukkale University Social Sciences Institution Master of Arts Thesis Department of English Language and Literature Çelik EKMEKÇİ Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL June 2012 DENİZLİ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my sincerest gratitudes and thanks to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL for his guidance and helpful suggestions for my study and my teachers whose wisdom I have profited during my MA education; Prof. Dr. Ertuğrul İŞLER, Assist Prof. Dr. Şeyda İNCEOĞLU, Assist. Prof. Dr. Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN, Assist. Prof. Dr. Meryem AYAN and Assist. Prof. Dr. Sonia VILLEGAS-LOPEZ. I am also grateful to my MA Classmates and Research Assistants Selime SOYUÇOK, Reyhan ÖZER TANIYAN and Baysar TANIYAN. Lastly, I want to thank my dearest family members, especially my mother, Türkan EKMEKÇİ, for her endless contribution, support and patience. iii ABSTRACT SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY AS A POSTMODERNIST TROPE IN DOUGLAS ADAMS’S SERIAL NOVELS THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY EKMEKÇİ, Çelik M.A. Thesis in English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL June 2012, 55 pages Postmodern elements found in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is the main topic of this study. Thanks to its postmodern science fictional specialties, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has been considered one of the favored best-seller books ever written. Even though the humorous narrative of the novel has the potential risk of impetuous categorization as science fiction as a genre, the novel moves closer to postmodernist science fictional text domain since the structural features of postmodernism are combined with the qualities and the elements of science fiction which establish a unification and integrity. Chapter one presents a general panorama of the elements and the categories of science fiction by providing background and historical information. Moreover, in this chapter, postmodernism is defined as a critical approach in this study and the relations between postmodern qualities and science fictional content are discussed. Chapter two contains the analysis of science fictional elements with postmodernist structural features as literary ways of expressions of parody, irony, satire and laughter. Chapter three deals with the occurrence of ideologies of cultural elements in the novel. Chapter four searches the case of an argumentation concerning the formation of alternative reality and its contribution to science fiction novel under postmodern features. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze postmodern characteristics in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in terms of postmodern structural features, mainly parody, irony, satire and laughter and their correspondences with science fictional qualities. Another question that will also be raised in the study is that whether postmodern qualities including ontological features, structural features (parody and so on) and the issues of alternative reality have an influence upon the way the book was shaped and handled as postmodern science fiction novel. Key Words: Postmodernism, Parody, Ontological Features, Alternative Reality, Science Fiction, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. iv ÖZET DOUGLAS ADAMS’IN BİR OTOSTOPÇUNUN GALAKSİ REHBERİ ADLI SERİ ROMANLARINDA POSTMODERNİST YÖNTEM OLARAK BİLİM- KURGUSAL PARODİ EKMEKÇİ, Çelik Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı ABD Tez Danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL Haziran 2012, 55 sayfa Bu çalışmanın ana konusu Douglas Adams’ın Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi romanında bulunan postmodern öğelerdir. Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi, postmodern bilim kurgu eseri olma özelliği sayesinde, beğenilen, en çok satan kitaplardan birisidir. Romanın mizahi anlatısının romanı tür bakımından bilim kurgu olarak sınıflandırma riski taşımasına rağmen, postmodernizm’in yapısal özelliklerinin, bütünlüğü ve birleşimi oluşturan bilim kurgu unsurları ve özellikleri ile birleştirdiği için adı geçen roman postmodern alana daha çok yakınlaşır. Birinci bölüm, bilim kurgu unsurları ve çeşitleri hakkında arka plan bilgisi ve tarihsel bilgi vererek genel bir açıklama sunmaktadır. Üstelik, bu bölümde postmodernizm bu çalışmadaki temel eleştirel yaklaşım olarak tanımlanıp, bilim kurgu içeriği ile postmodern özelliklerin ilişkisi tartışılmaktadır. İkinci bölüm, postmodernizmin parodi, ironi, hiciv ve güldürü unsuru olan edebi anlatım yolları olarak yapısal özellikleri ile bilim kurgu unsurlarının analizini içerir. Üçüncü bölüm romandaki kültürel unsur ideolojilerinin ortaya çıkışını ele alır. Dördüncü bölüm alternatif gerçeklik kavramının oluşumu savını ve bu alternatif gerçekliğin postmodern özellikler altındaki bilim kurgu romana katkısını araştırır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, postmodern yapısal özellikleri olan başta parodi, ironi, hiciv ve güldürü unsurunu ve bu öğelerin bilim kurgu özelliklerine olan ilişkileri bakımından, Douglas Adams’ın Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi adlı romanındaki postmodern öğelerin incelenmesidir. Bu çalışmada ileri sürülecek diğer bir soru da varlıksal özellikleri, yapısal özellikleri ve alternatif gerçeklik gibi postmodern özelliklerin romanın postmodern bilim kurgu olarak ele alınmasının şekillenmesinde bir etkisi olup olmadığıdır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Postmodernizm, Parodi, Varoluşsal Postmodern Özellikler, Alternatif Gerçeklik, Bilim Kurgu, Douglas Adams, Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM............................................................................................. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... ii ABSTRACT................................................................................................. iii ÖZET.......................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................. v INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE 5 FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO POSTMODERNISM CHAPTER TWO 22 THE ANALYSIS OF ADAMS’ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY AS A SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY 42 CHAPTER THREE IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND THE ARGUMENTATION PART CONCERNING ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY IN THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY CONCLUSION............................................................................................................. 51 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 54 C.V................................................................................................................................ 55 1 INTRODUCTION The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction novel, owing to the categories and specialties that it contains. Moreover, it has such science fictional elements as galactic issues, spaceships, high-technology, time traveling, robots and fantastic features and the imagination power of the author as well just the way the science fiction as a literary genre requires. However in the novel, the first impression is that it has a humor. Hence, the tone is highly humorous. Throughout the novel, Douglas Adams uses parody in every item even in the expressions of worldly issues, space, aliens, spaceships and others. Therefore it is expressed that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has ironical and satirical elements as well. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a serial novel which consists of five different novels that complete one another. It is episodic in form because there are stories within stories which seem as if they depend upon one another and each novel is the continuation of another. The names of the novels are; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, The Restaurant at The End of the Universe, Life, The Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All Fish, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe and lastly as a short story Mostly Harmless. Yet, among these series only the first book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will be studied in this thesis. Meanwhile, each novel has its own different plot overview. It can moreover be said that in all novels, reality and fiction are intermingled with one another in that there are many references to historical facts, special names and historical characters. Thus, in the novel it seems it has its realistic scenario. Yet, the characters are fictional and the theme is fictional too containing lots of science fictional elements. Moreover the names of the major characters in the novel seem both realistic and fictive as well. Among them, Arthur Dent is a protagonist and he has his characteristic features that are totally applicable to the characteristics of modern man in today’s condition owing to the fact that he is always worried about the future. Moreover, he is despondent, he has his no 2 hope and one of the most important things about him is that he is not happy with his life. Another major character is Ford Prefect, he is an alien but, he has been living in the world for a long time. Zaphod Beeblebrox, he is an alien too and he is totally an imaginative fantastic character in that he has two heads and one day he comes to earth and meets Trillian in a party, who is the other important worldly character in the novel. Lastly, another important character throughout the novel is
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